‘You never know when you’ll have a period emergency’; ‘That would be dreamy for when it starts unexpectedly’; ‘Google did when I went to some training there and it was such a pleasant surprise’.

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When I went to Etsy’s HQ a few months ago and found that their loos were full of towels and tampons, I was also surprised and touched by how far they’d gone to make their largely female workforce feel at home. I was grateful to Etsy for caring enough to spend the money and share that financial burden with their employees.

It’s generally accepted that many of these big American companies provide various in-office benefits in order to keep their workforce on site for the maximum amount of time. Breakfasts and lunches are offered in a bid to stop workers from venturing outside and utilising their lunch breaks or being late to work in the first place. Interoffice happy hours extend the working day yet further, as do recreational facilities like pool and foosball tables.

So it’s no wonder that they also offer women sanitary products.

How many times have you been caught short and come on your period unexpectedly? How many times have you gone to work with a tampon in…only to discover that you don’t have quite as many in your washbag as you thought?

Loads of us find ourselves having to dash to the nearest Boots to pick up emergency supplies.

Critics might complain that businesses shouldn’t have to fork out on something that is rather expensive and only applies to half of the office population.

For corporate subscriptions, Freda offers bulk pricing – £10 for 40 pads or tampons, which is £0.25 a unit. So let’s say that’s £1 per person, per day…and you’ve got 50 women on their period at any one time. That’s £50 a pop.

But businesses could find them cheaper if they went to wholesalers.

(Picture: Freda)

Gemma works for a retail company in Vancouver, Canada.

‘We have over 1,000 employees in our office, the majority of whom are women and the company has always offered free sanitary products in the bathrooms,’ she tells Metro.co.uk.

‘It’s small things like this that makes you feel like the company cares. It’s also super helpful when you’re caught unawares!’

One wonders how much money companies could save if they stopped providing other facilities, such as free tea and coffee.

Now, I know what you’re thinking – stripping us of a constant source of hot beverages would be an assault on human rights.

But if it’s a financial choice between tampons for all or coffee, I’d probably plump for the former.

You don’t need free tea and coffee. You won’t have an embarrassing accident without tea or coffee (and if you would, you might want to have a think about that).

In the same way as not everyone needs tampons or pads, not everyone takes advantage of the free drinks in offices. And in the vast majority of cases, businesses wouldn’t have to choose between providing one or other.

On the financial side, no doubt many would argue that if women were paid more (read: equally), there’d be no need to provide products in the first place because they’d be able to buy all the tampons they could ever need.

‘It’s a nice bonus in case of emergencies, but companies should provide their staff with decent pay so they can choose what sanitary option suits them,’ says Christine Buske, a neuroscientist.

‘One doesn’t exclude the other, but pay (gap) discussions are far more pressing than sanitary products in the staff loo.’

She’s got a point, of course.

(Picture: Getty)

Not all of us use the same sanitary products. Those of us who are team Moon Cup (’till I die/stop menstruating!) wouldn’t remember where to begin with pads or tampons. And poor pay is one of the most pressing issues when it comes to female empowerment and progress.

But I’d argue that having the option of some kind of sanitary support on-site offers more than simply financial relief. Clearly, proper pay comes first but then comes quality of life.

So many of us are still embarrassed about having periods; you see grown women still hiding their tampons up their sleeves or carrying their entire handbags into the loos.

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Imagine having to tell your male line-manager that you need to dash out because you’ve leaked. Actually, scrap that – imagine telling your manager regardless of their sex that your cup is literally runneth over.

It’s this unnecessary embarrassment, I’m sure, that puts some women off going to work at all some days. It’s not just that they’re in pain, feeling lethargic and generally not on it – it’s that periods are so interlinked with humiliation.

And with good reason.

A 2002 study suggested the people viewed tampon-carrying women as less competent, less likeable and physically off-putting.

In fact, according to a survey carried out last year, 44% of women say they’d rather cite diarrhoea as the cause when taking a period-related sick day. Yep, nearly half of us find it less embarrassing to say that we’re literally pooing ourselves than admitting to struggling with our periods.

And so it seems a shame that the chat around periods start and end with poverty.

It isn’t just those who cannot afford to have periods who’d benefit from sharing the load of sanitary access.

Women in the workplace still have a long way to go in terms of equal pay and opportunities and by more big businesses offering to provide them with these very necessary products, it’d a way of showing how valued their female staffers are.